


Hidden Staircase Darkfic

by Anonymous



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Blood, Darkfic, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Dubious Consent, Gen, Gun Violence, Implied/Referenced Torture, Murder, Parent Death, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27524263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Nancy's heart sank. The room was covered in dried blood.
Kudos: 1
Collections: Anonymous





	Hidden Staircase Darkfic

Nancy's heart sank. The room was covered in dried blood. There were a few dark splatters, many more faint streaks, and in the corner stood a mop in an empty bucket. Someone had futily tried to clean up the evidence.

She kept up her search. There were only a few boxes in the room, so it really wasn't much trouble to look through them all. She was hoping to find some clue as to her father's whereabouts. One box contained a round thing covered in smooth dark fibers the size of, well, a human head. With dread in her heart Nancy got it out to look at it and saw it was her father's. She quickly set it down again. At least it looked like he was already dead when his head was removed.

“Can't you Drews ever mind your own business?” In the only doorway on the far side of the room stood Nathan Gomber with a gun. “Your father just wouldn't break. Whether I starved him or fed him drugs, he stayed loyal to that railroad company. Meanwhile they were saying he'd abandoned the case and was off partying in Vegas. A stupid cause to die for. I guess you came here looking for him. If you'd just waited a few days his body would wash up by the river. Now you get to join him.”

Nancy's mind was going a mile a minute. “Knowing my father and his respect for the rule of law, it doesn't surprise me that he'd wouldn't want to let you make money off this no matter what it cost him. But I'm not like him. I'm willing to do anything to live. Anything.” She hiked up her skirt, just to make sure he got the message.

Gomber walked up to her, gun still in hand. He backed her into the wall, put the gun to her ribs, and started running his other hand up her thigh. Nancy tried her best to stay calm – until she got the opening she needed. She shot forward, caught his throat between her teeth and bit down until she tasted blood. She heard the gun go off, but there was no time to worry about that now. She pushed Gomber to the ground and stomped on his gun hand so hard she heard bones break.

* * *

Willie Wharton was already pretty sick of living out of an underground hallway and thinking of leaving when he heard a sound like a firecracker in the house up above. He slowly made his way up there to try to check it out when he heard three more firecrackers coming from the old storage room. The place didn't look anything like it did the last time he saw it. There was old blood on the floor, and Gomber and the Drew girl were both bleeding new blood onto it, him lying on his back and her collapsed to her knees.

“Call an ambulance!” she cried when she saw him.

“What's going on?”

“Never mind that, just get help!”

* * *

Nancy had only been shot the once, and luckily the bullet missed any major arteries. Helen came to visit her in the hospital as soon as she heard. Of course she did, how could she not?

“Now that there's proof that Nathan Gomber used intimidation and other underhanded tactics in his real estate business, Miss Flora should be able to get the sale of her house reversed.” Nancy told her.

“Oh, damn the house!” Helen exclaimed. “How are you doing?”

“I've been better.” Nancy admitted, then tried to change the subject.

Normally Helen admired Nancy's tenacity, but right now it was grating on her. That girl just lost her remaining parent, killed a man for the first time in her life, was now in the hospital after being shot at, and all she wanted to talk about was Miss Flora's house and the upcoming dance and other frivolous things. If anyone had told Helen a month ago that she would come to think of Miss Flora and Aunt Rosemary being forced out of their home as “frivolous things” she certainly wouldn't have believed it. As much as her heart wanted to give Nancy a million hugs and make everything better, her mind understood that Nancy might need space, or need the distraction. Forcing people to talk about their feelings before they're ready often does more harm than good.

As for Nancy, she understood the idea that sorrow shared is sorrow halved, but knowing and doing are two different things. Her first instinct was to try to be brave, and not worry those around her. She could tell near strangers about her mother just fine, but this was all a little too raw, too recent. Only when Helen had left the room was she able to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> Nathan Gomber might start The Hidden Staircase explaining his own plan to Nancy for seemingly no reason, but the parallels between some of his tactics and those of real world organized crime made him feel more dangerous than most of the other villains when I reread some of my old Nancy Drew books. Decapitating already dead bodies is another thing real criminals do sometimes, since it makes it harder to identify the body.


End file.
